The Florida Project (2017)
November 1, 2025: This was a film that I really didn't appreciate until it was over. It gets better as it goes on, but I found at least the first half hard to get through. Knowing how loved this film is, it's a bit hard to be honest about not liking it too much. What I do love about it is the location it takes place in. The two sort of main characters (Mooney and her mother Halley) live in a hotel in Kissimmee named Magic Castle, not too far from Disney World, and that representation of being poor in a big tourist destination is so interesting and makes the story that much more heartbreaking when you consider the children's perspectives. Mooney can't afford to see the castle in Magic Kingdom, but she lives in her own "Magic Castle" which is really just a shitty, run down place that her mom can barely afford.

My thoughts changed a lot throughout this film, but one thing that was consistent is finding it a bit hard to root for Halley because she's just so unbearable. Like, you want her to make money and succeed for the sake of her daughter, but she's terrible. Prostitution ends up being the best way for her to make money, but she locks Mooney in the bathroom when men come over. Despite all of this though, you can tell that her and Mooney both really love each other, and it's so hard to watch Mooney crying and running away from CPS when they're trying to take her away from Halley.

This is the part that made me change my mind about the film and appreciate the way the plot plays out: The last few scenes, when CPS shows up to take Mooney away, she runs away and cries to her friend Jancy, and they enter a dream sequence in which they run away together to Disney world, are so intense and heartbreaking and well-written that it makes every frustrating, hard to watch scene leading up to it feel worth it. You know that it might be best for Mooney to go with another family because of the awful things that Halley does, but she doesn't understand the entire situation because she can tell her mom loves her so much, and it makes it easy in that moment to feel like Mooney should be allowed to stay with her mother. The Disney World scene actually killed me though. Those kids have probably never once actually been there because they're so poor, but they imagine it as a place to run away to, where everything is happy and good. I think it was a good scene to end the film with. Usually I'd probably hate dream scenes but it makes perfect sense here because they're just little kids using their imagination to escape. You know that Mooney was most likely taken away and her friends still had to live in those crappy little rooms and just have to make the best of it, but for those last few moments everything feels like it'll be okay until it cuts straight to the end credits and you have to think about the reality of every character in the film and the way their lives might continue after that last scene. I understand that taking a child away from their parent(s) is a very traumatizing situation, but what else could have been done for Mooney?

Also, I went on to letterboxd for the first time in my life after watching this just to see what other people had to say about it and holy shit are the users on that website annoying and stupid. Someone asked how they got into Disney World, and I feel like it was SO obvious that it was a dream sequence!! The entire film is pretty realistic so why would it end with something like two little girls successfully sneaking into an amusement park? Really hated that so many comments on there were just trying to be funny. I'm here to talk about this film, I don't care that you think Willem Dafoe's existence is amusing.